Mizithra Browned Butter Pasta

Rita~'s Note:

A Greek cheese made with the whey from Feta and Kefalotiri, along with sheep and cow's milk, which is used to enrich the cheese. It is sold both fresh and aged. Fresh Mizithra is soft, resembling cottage cheese and the aged is shaped like a large egg and is firm with a pungent aroma and mild flavor. The aged cheese, known as Xinomyzithra, makes a perfect grating cheese. Mizithra is also spelled Myzithra. If fresh mizithra is not available, ricotta can be used for a similar texture.

• Total Time: 13 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 8 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 lb pasta
• 1/2-1 cup butter or 1/2-1 cup olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup mizithra cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh Greek oregano

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in large pot of salted, boiling water until al dente. Drain.
2. When pasta is almost done, start slowly melting butter over medium heat until golden and bubbles subside. Saute garlic and toss pasta with butter garlic mixture. Sprinkle with cheese & herbs to taste. Sprinkle some fresh cracked black pepper. Enjoy!

Reviews

[lazyme]

This was very simple and tasty. I used linguine and already grated mizithra. Thanks Rita. Made by an Unruly Under the Influence for ZWT6.

[GaylaV]

I thought this was very good. It is always hard to recapture food memories but this is close to the Spaghetti Factory experience. I did cut the butter in half but next time I would not make such a huge cut. After all, the title of the recipe includes butter so it needs to taste like butter. As I had it today I would only give 4 stars but I do think if I had followed the recipe it would be a 5 so am going with that. I did use the hard Myzithra which was easy to grate. I am so happy to have this recipe. It was made for ZWT4. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe.

[evelyn/athens]

You can easily cut the butter back to a 1/2 cup for this recipe - the flavour will still be there but with way fewer calories and more heart-healthy. Made it to serve with grilled meats for our Father's Day Lunch.